Ton Bruynèl: Toccare (1979), 10’25

Pianist and composer Robert Nasveld is an outsider; as radio producer and indefatigable  advocate of American composer George Crumb he is a man of significance.

Robert Nasveld’s music presented surprising power of expression.

He understands my music as no other.

Crumb himself could not have wished for a better recording.

When you are at a dead end with a student, ‘Hand over Hand’ has funny, exciting, sensitive pieces to make him/her enthusiastic again.

My reference for comparison with Crumb’s Makrokosmos IV is that of Robert Nasveld on the Attacca label, 9371 and 9372. My main reason for selecting this version is that it has always come out on top, all other recordings which I have come across long having gone by the wayside.

Robert Nasveld presents a wonderful example of the bitter melancholy that is the essence of the blues with his beautiful Frozen Blues.

Nasveld has always been a wayward composer, showing little interest in trends.

Robert Nasveld writes exceptionally beautiful music, although its beauty is not pastoral, but contradictory, unstable, disturbing, capable of stimulating all spiritual forces of the listener.